Shielded wire cables typically include an insulated core conductor and a separate insulated shield conductor surrounding the core conductor insulation. The shield conductor may consist of a braided wire mesh, metal foil, or metalized film. The cables typically have a second insulation layer covering the shield conductor. Shielded wire cables have been long used for communications systems, such as in cable television transmission lines. Shielded wire cables are also finding use in high voltage applications in electric and hybrid electric vehicles. When shielded wire cables are spliced together, there is usually a need to electrically connect the shield conductors of the spliced cables as well as the core conductor, in order to maintain electrical continuity of the shield conductors. Interconnecting the shield conductors may be complicated because the shield conductors must be cut back from the spliced ends of the cable in order to join the core conductors. Interconnecting the shield conductors may be further complicated in a one-to-many splicing configuration, sometimes referred to as a Y-splice.
A prior art method splicing shielded wire cables involved joining the center conductors of the cables using a crimping connection, covering the crimped joint with an insulator, such as heat shrinkable tubing and then covering the exposed shield conductors and insulated joint with a flux coated solder impregnated conductive sleeve within a section of heat shrinkable tubing. Such a solder impregnated conductive sleeve within a section of heat shrinkable tubing is available from TE Connectivity Corporation of Menlo Park Calif. (formerly Tyco Corporation) under the brand name SolderShield.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.